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activeCollab API

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As you know, we’ve been working for several weeks now on updating TimeThis to work with the new aC3. The changes in aC3 are fairly substantial. In our opinion it’s a huge departure from the workflow in aC2. We see it more as a new application than simply an upgrade.

So here are a few things we discovered in working to update TimeThis for aC3.

1. We found that importing data from aC2 does not map to aC3’s model, which for us did not return the expected results.

2. Projects and Milestones can no longer be used for time tracking.

3. Checklists and Tasks workflow are gone. They’ve been replaced by Tasks and Subtasks. Tasks can be timed, but Subtasks cannot.

4. You can now assign a task a “job type” when recording time for a task. These job types can be created and associated with a billing rate.

5. aC3 also has “ToDo” lists, which are turned off by default. ToDo’s can be timed, but show up as generic entries under the project time and expense category.

Of course there are many, many other changes in aC3 and we’ve only discussed those affecting TimeThis. As we move closer to outputting our update we’ll make sure to let you know. And as we’ve said before, we fully intend to continue to support aC2 and Basecamp Classic. We’re also working on making TimeThis available to interface with a number of other project management and collaboration applications.

As always, you can get the latest updates and news for TimeThis, the most popular desktop time tracking app for Basecamp and activeCollab users, by subscribing to our RSS feed.

Recently, Basecamp and activeCollab issued updates to their project management software, both of which affect TimeThis.

In the case of Basecamp, the new upgrade eliminates time tracking altogether. The folks at 37signals who own Basecamp say they don’t track time, they don’t understand it so they didn’t include it in the new version.

In the meantime, TimeThis continues to work properly under Basecamp Classic and we recommend sticking with that for now.

We will continue to support TimeThis for the Classic version and if in the future 37signals decides to open up the API for time tracking support in the new Basecamp software, we will support that as well.

As for activeCollab, their API wrapper library has not been updated to work with the new upgrade to activeCollab 3.0 and therefore does not work with TimeThis.

There are no issues with TimeThis on the earlier 2.0 branch and again, we recommend using that for now.

We are following changes closely and will update our own info on the TimeThis blog as more information is gleaned. Please subscribe to our RSS feed to receive these important updates.

We are hopeful both Basecamp and activeCollab will resolve these issues quickly.

UPDATE (Dec. 16, 2010): All Basecamp connections are now required to be secure connections. If you are using Basecamp, make sure that the API URL path entered in the settings panel begins with https://.

It’s the morning of September 2 here in Virginia, and we’re anxiously watching the path of Hurricane Earl to see if it will wreak havoc over our three-day weekend (Monday’s Labor Day here in the U.S.). We sincerely hope that your experience with TimeThis has not been ruined by an “Earl” of another sort. Unlike the hurricane (have you seen this image taken from the International Space Station?), this kind of “Earl” is easy to overlook.

This is your API URL (yeah, we love homophonic puns). Why is it easy to overlook as a possible cause for problems between TimeThis and either activeCollab or Basecamp? Because just one character can mean the difference between success and not-success.

This means that if your API URL begins with http://, then the URL as entered on the TimeThis Server Settings tab of the TimeThis settings panel needs to begin with http:// — conversely, if the URL begins with https://, then it needs to begin with https:// in the application’s settings.

And, of course, an http:// and https:// mismatch gets you a date with Earl.

Here’s an important note for activeCollab users who have downloaded, installed and gotten TimeThis set up with their respective API URL and Key, only to have been bemused when the application seemingly fails to submit time to their project site.

Any frustration is understandable, particularly since TimeThis is retrieving projects and tasks as it should — it’s just not posting time as advertised. And we don’t like apps that appear to be broken any more than the next person does, especially when the application is our own!

Here’s what’s happening and the simple change that needs to be made to get TimeThis and activeCollab talking back and forth as they should.

By default, the activeCollab API is set to “Read-Only”. This means that TimeThis can retrieve data from your activeCollab installation but not submit new data. Hence, TimeThis can retrieve projects and tasks but not submit time.

To change API state check for API_STATUS in your config/config.php. If that configuration directive does not exist, add the following line to the file:

define('API_STATUS', 1);

Values this directive can have are:

0 – API is disabled

1 – API is read-only

2 – API supports both read and write requests

In short, if the configuration file of your activeCollab installation is missing the API state definition or if the API state is set to anything except 2, TimeThis will be unable to post time to activeCollab.

Fortunately it’s an easy fix. Just make sure the directive is there and that it has the value of 2 so that TimeThis can read from and write to your activeCollab installation. Happy timing!